Well, Tamworth Country Music Festival..........we came for a few days but stayed for the full 14. And what a great two weeks it’s been. I am not a country music fan, and would probably not have come without a bit of nagging and a degree of curiosity. But even I have loved it and would definitely come again.
I’m still not a country fan per se ( the poor old one legged dog that’s about to be put down type songs just don’t do it for me, not do many covers, murdered by hopeful yet usually tired imitators) But I do like the fast and entertaining mix of folk/rock/ country, and the original stuff that I’ve heard in the past few weeks. In fact, I’ve bought more music here than I have done for years, and have it stashed on my ipod, ready for the Nullabor.
But rather than bore the tits off you, I’ve just done a round up here with some pictures; more detailed stuff will be on a separate post (which is more to remind myself) when I get round to it. Maybe.
Tamworth is a bit of a local hub, a reasonable sized place with the usual shops and businesses plus a bit more. It was the first city in Australia to start using electricity ( back in 1888) and there is an electricity museum here ( didn’t visit it; we have electricity at home and don't need to know more) plus various country music references, like the hall of fame, pavement plaques to Golden Guitar Awards down Peel Street ( a sort of Grammy’s for Country Music) and a big golden guitar on the city outskirts.
The main street, Peel Street, and the Peel River are both named named after the then MP for Tamworth in the UK, Robert Peel, the same bloke who invented the Met Police. There is also an Equestrian centre just up from the giant guitar, which is the biggest equestrian centre in the southern hemishphere, and regularly hosts horsey events. We watched rodeo there, twice.
But none of that really matters while the festival is on, with the town undergoing a complete transformation from modest country town to buzzing major music centre with thousands of visitors, well known music stars, and buskers, all mingled together, playing, singing, eating, watching others or just wandering.
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| Adam Harvey - big country singer |
The atmosphere is fabulous, with people coming from all over Australia and beyond, just for the festival. Many dress up, many don’t, and the whole place turns into a sort of anything goes show, where people do what they want, weird becomes normal and nobody bats and eyelid or gives a crap. Its great.
The cross dressing swaggie wore his halterneck leopard print sundress most days and nobody bothered him, even after a few beers, the fat biker type squeezed into a onesie wandered up and down the main street similarly untroubled, while the bloke cooking sausages in the park did so in his spotty apron.
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| Cross dressing swage |
It’s been pretty hot too, the old barometer hitting 41º last week, which although a dry heat, was still a bit raw, particularly when shade is limited. But I love the heat, so it didn’t bother me. I just kept drinking water, wore a hat and kept out of direct heat. And once or twice, we found a nice cool pub and took refuge there.
The best bit of the festival though was that Nadine was able to join us. She rode her postie up from Kempsey and managed to stay for six days, which really made the festival; it’s just not the same without her.
It was great having her back, albeit only for a limited time and even if she did forget her tent and so had to bunk in mine. Dozy tart.....
The festival highlights have been many. The opening concert was pretty special, particularly as the celebratory fireworks set the park alight and added a bit of unexpected excitement to the event. ( the bloke who does them is a minister who does it as a sideline and goes by the name of' Holy Smoke')
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| The Sunny Cow girls |
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| Beccy Cole |
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| Lyn Bowtell |
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| Libby O'Donovan |
The best group I saw all week was without doubt, were the Round Mountain Girls, five blokes ( the lead singer being a scouser) playing a mix of folk and rock, jumping on tables, belting out great songs and giving everybody a brilliant time. I think we saw them three times, and they were excellent on each occasion.
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| River Mountain Girls |
And this lot - The Twine, were very cool. A mix of percussion with digeridoos and a few vocals, all muddled together in a sort of street music style.
And like festivals anywhere, a community builds up over the days and we met some great people. Ronnie and her two girls, ( poodles called Sally and Poppy), Tony the Pom, and loads of people who wandered by and stopped to chat about bikes, something accentuated by an article and photo in the local paper about us travelling around Oz.
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| Ronnie |
Unbeknown to us, the word had got around that one bloke and two sheilas ( the reporter’s words, not mine) were at Riverside Park, having stopped for the festival on their way around Oz. So the paper sent somebody to find us, take our pic, and write about us. That was quite funny and as a consequence, we were recognised in shops,in the physio’s, on the site, at gigs.
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| Roger in the camping shop |
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| My ace swag |
On the day Nadine left, we rode with her for a few kms, then turned off towards Nundle and Hanging Rock. Its not the Hanging Rock of Joan Lindsay’s novel; that’s down near Melbourne but it was good enough for a gander and a few snaps.
The pub there also hosts some of the festival music, and has a two headed cow on display.
We spent most of that in the pub, having a good time and swigging ice cold cider, and chatting to John and Christine from Queensland.
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| Christine |
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| John |
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